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Apply vs Rub - What's the difference?

apply | rub |

In transitive terms the difference between apply and rub

is that apply is to betake; to address; to refer; generally used reflexively while rub is to spread a substance thinly over; to smear.

In intransitive terms the difference between apply and rub

is that apply is to pertain or be relevant to a specified individual or group while rub is to be rubbed against something.

As an adjective apply

is an alternative spelling of lang=en.

As a noun rub is

an act of rubbing.

apply

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) applier, ((etyl) appliquer), from (etyl) . See applicant, ply.

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another);—with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , author= , title=Translation of Virgil's Aeneid , passage=He said, and to the sword his throat applied . , year=1697}}
  • To put to use; to use or employ for a particular purpose, or in a particular case; to appropriate; to devote; as, to apply money to the payment of a debt.
  • To make use of, declare, or pronounce, as suitable, fitting, or relative; as, to apply the testimony to the case; to apply an epithet to a person.
  • * (rfdate) Milton,
  • Yet God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied .
  • To fix closely; to engage and employ diligently, or with attention; to attach; to incline.
  • * 1611 , '', ''Proverbs 23:12,
  • Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
  • To betake; to address; to refer; generally used reflexively.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • sacred vows applied to grisly Pluto
  • * (rfdate) Johnson
  • I applied myself to him for help.
  • To submit oneself as a candidate (with the adposition "to" designating the recipient of the submission, and the adposition "for" designating the position).
  • I recently applied to the tavern for a job as a bartender.
    Most of the colleges she applied to were ones she thought she had a good chance of getting into.
    Many of them don't know it, but almost a third of the inmates are eligible to apply for parole or work-release programs.
  • To pertain or be relevant to a specified individual or group.
  • That rule only applies to foreigners.
  • (obsolete) To busy; to keep at work; to ply.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • She was skillful in applying his humours.
  • (obsolete) To visit.
  • * Chapman
  • His armour was so clear, / And he applied each place so fast, that like a lightning thrown / Out of the shield of Jupiter, in every eye he shone.
    (Webster 1913)

    Etymology 2

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • References

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    rub

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of rubbing.
  • Give that lamp a good rub and see if any genies come out
  • A difficulty or problem.
  • Therein lies the rub .
  • * III.i.71-75
  • To die, to sleep—/To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub !/For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,/When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,/Must give us pause
  • * , Episode 16
  • ...the propriety of the cabman's shelter, as it was called, hardly a stonesthrow away near Butt bridge where they might hit upon some drinkables in the shape of a milk and soda or a mineral. But how to get there was the rub .
  • In the game of crown green bowls: any obstacle by which a bowl is diverted from its normal course.
  • A mixture of spices applied to meat before it is barbecued.
  • Verb

  • To move (one object) while maintaining contact with another object over some area, with pressure and friction.
  • * , chapter=7
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.}}
  • To rub something against (a second thing).
  • * Sir T. Elyot
  • It shall be expedient, after that body is cleaned, to rub the body with a coarse linen cloth.
  • To be rubbed against something.
  • To spread a substance thinly over; to smear.
  • meat rubbed with spices before barbecuing
  • * Milton
  • The smoothed plank, / New rubbed with balm.
  • (dated) To move or pass with difficulty.
  • To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; often with up'' or ''over .
  • to rub up silver
  • * South
  • The whole business of our redemption is to rub over the defaced copy of the creation.
  • To hinder; to cross; to thwart.
  • * Shakespeare
  • 'Tis the duke's pleasure, / Whose disposition, all the world well knows, / Will not be rubbed nor stopped.

    Derived terms

    * rubber * rubbing * rub elbows * rub in * rub it in * rub out * rub off * rub shoulders * rub up * rub up on

    Anagrams

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